News

Concerning Ambulance Response Times Released For Town

Tuesday July 29 2014

Yorkshire Ambulance Service is supposed to attend an average of 75 per cent of emergency calls within eight minutes.

But according to a report by the Clinical Commissioning Group - which commissions the town's health services - only 64.7 per cent of Barnsley calls relating to respiratory and cardiac arrest met the target.

Barnsley Central MP Dan Jarvis said: "I'm very concerned. Every second counts when someone's life is on the line.

"I will be talking to all the agencies involved to find out what can be done locally to improve this situation and ensure that Barnsley people get the standards of service they're entitled to."

This is due to staff shortages and being forced to work with no breaks. I work in a care home and it took ambulance 35 mins to arrive to a service user who had fallen and cut their head. Staff couldn't apologise enough because they were on another job when it came through. They need more staff and regular breaks its disgusting how they are treated.

Carl ambulance staff are restricted to speed limits when on blue lights, if in a 20mph ambulance can only drive at 30mph all other speed limits ambulance are only allowed to travel 20mph over that limit,on motorways ambulances can travel at 90 mph.
Staff are forced to work 8 hours plus before having a break, 12 hour shifts are often 13 plus the number of crews are cut non clinical ECA's are often put together to work and always need paramedic back up which then takes a qualified member of staff off the road for longer.
Crews are often tied up at hospitals waiting to hand over patients to A and E at York hospital I have waited 2 hours before. We are always out of area so a Barnsley crew will spend a lot of their shift in Wakefied or sheffield the Wakefield crews will be in Leeds/Bradford and this has a knock on effect. Pinderfields divert every other day meaning they refuse patient via ambulance making crews travel to other hospitals.
111 pass more inappropriate calls to ambulances ie a 34 year old stubbed toe I Kid you not!! I had to drive on blue lights 15 miles for that ! Nursing homes always call 999 for falls because a lot of them have a no lifting policy so a ambulance is sent to lift the old dear off the floor check them for injuries and put them back to bed. The ambulance service run at 95 % capacity on a daily basis the fire service run at approx 15%
The NHS ambulance service at a whole is on a crisis and politicians continue to ignore. The private provider is a shadow in the background slowly creaping in.
The latest YAS management idea is to put fridges in all ambulances there's are about 12 cm square and staff will have to take their dinner with them they will then be forces to take their breaks when there is a quite moment and park where ever they are to eat

Tim I think you and your colleagues do a marvellous job under difficult circumstances in my eyes you cannot be praised enough for the work you all do I think to the idea for you to eat your meals in the ambulance is disgusting everyone deserves a break and you should not have to wait 8 hours to take one I agree with you about the private provider that's all this government is interested in doing that 111service is a joke calling an ambulance for something menial like that when I'm sure you would rather be out there saving somebody who truly needs and deserves an ambulance

Margaret I fully agree what you say and for the praise for Tim. I remember when I left school and worked with a painter and decorator and had to eat my lunch in the back of the van with all the paint tins around our feet. It wouldn't happen now with H&S but who would want to eat food in an ambulance.
The 111 service is the worse thing. My wife had to ring 111 for an appointment on a Saturtday morning. She had problems with her ear and some of the symptoms she was having alerted the call centre person to send an ambulance. My wife knew what it was and only needed anti biotics so just needed an appointment with a out of hours GP. They wouldn't listen and said she needed the A&E and informed us to wait as it was on its way.
I told them to cancel it and drove my wife to A&E. They confirmed it was an infection and were not surprised when we told them about 111 wanting to send an ambulance.
The sooner this government is out ghe better. I only hope the Labour Party put the NHS back on track and put money back into it.

The Ambulance Service like all the Emergency services do an amazing job in the majority of cases. Unfortunately years ago the decision was made to run the said services as a business not a ' service '. It will not get any better under Labour as it was Labour who introduced performance indicators and targets for the emergency services and weighed them down with uneccesary beaurocracy, hope I spelt that correctly.

That's because Tony Blair betrayed his party. He didn't put right what thatcher did. All the privatisation that is in place now is a direct result of Thatcher. The cons are doing the finishing touches to ruin the NHS,

She wasn't all bad Tony. She picked this country off it's knees (thanks once again to the previous Labour government) and made us in to one of the richest countrys in the world. Thanks to the Labour Government before her reign we were labelled *The Sick Man Of Europe*.

I see a pattern, do you?

Anybody considering voting Labour again after their 13 years of poison and treachary againts this country have some serious, serious mental issues.

Can only disagree i called the ambulance for a friend last night with severe breathing problems and paramedic arrived within 2 mins and ambulance within 3 mins on a Friday night think that's pritty impressive they do a fantastic job work long hours and put up with things that the normal public could never do

Crikey Jade,they've got wheels and have to dodge around traffic! They can't fly over the top of everyone. They will have done their utmost to get there asap don't worry about that. God! Some folk have no idea!

Im not dissing the paramedics one bit! I know they did what they could. It just seemed to be a long time during a life and death situation where a 19 year old girl had been thrown into the air and was critical. Luckily my mum, a nurse was first to her followed by an off duty army paramedic keeping her stable until they arrived. Also as i was on the phone they were finding it difficult to find us as they couldn't pin point us and said they were looking for us on the map, this is why it took so long.. They do a great job, hats off to them because i have been so shaken by this.

There you go jade,you've given your own explanation into why you think they took so long. Half an hour seems like a lifetime in some situations. Hope the girls OK. Personally I wouldn't criticise half an hour,especially as the paramedics were with you.

Jade. Within half n hour of that incident occurring there was a helimed team, two trauma unit doctors, two ambulance crews and two responder cars on scene. Not to mention several police officers and an accident investigation team. It was a nasty rtc in which one person sustained injuries serious enough to be flown directly to the nearest trauma unit at northern general hospital in sheffield. As part of that team I am sorry that what you experienced has left you shaken. The helicopter flew from its base at Nostell Priory and would have been instantly despatched by our comms team as soon as the incident was reported. The road vehicles will have been despatched asap also. Unfortunately the limited resources that we have are spread very thin amongst the area that we cover and are not always instantly available. We do our absolute best to reach any incident as quickly but as safely as we can. People often comment that they see ambulance responder cars parked beside the road doing nothing. This is like a game of chess. Available vehicles are strategically place in areas which allow them to reach incidents as quickly as possible. A small percentage rise in calls requiring response can instantly remove all the pieces from the chess board, thus leaving further calls vulnerable to available vehicles been much further away. We are all here because we care about the communities we serve and are very proud of our organisation and proud to wear the uniform. Unfortunately finances prevent us from having someone on every street corner thus leaving people in need of help becoming at the mercy of our limited availability. A sad but true reflection of society today. I am not writing this to criticise your thoughts and feelings but hopefully to help you understand the difficulties that our service faces on a daily basis. We are human and we do our absolute best. If you are experiencing difficulty coming to terms with the things you saw then please please seek help from your GP who can offer counselling. If what has left you shaken is how long it took us to respond, then I offer our sincere apologies with an assurance that we are doing everything we can to avoid such situations. A very proud member of your ambulance service.

Fantastic reply Tony
I too am a paramedic. I worked yesterday my first call at7am was to a lady that was woke at 630am with diarrhoea after taking lactulose (did what it says on the tin) ask yourself this did she really need to phone 999 for a ambulance ?? It turns out she had 2 loose bowl movements I passed the call back to 111 for a GP to assess carried out a full set off observations and completed paper work, this tied me up and took me off the road for 1 hour 20 mins! Almost one hour waiting for a GP to call me back so I could discus the patient. That's probably why you had to wait so long for me !
My next job was some one having an fit known epelectic no medical interventions needed stopped fitting when I got there, it took me less than 5 mins to reach the patient, patient refused to travel and refused being referes to a GP, most epelectic patients refuse to travel to hospital.
My next job was to a asthmatic I was on scene waiting for a ambulance 1 hour 30 yes I agree it's disgusting the crew who came told me they had being tired up with a patient who had phones because they had headache for over 1 hour awaiting a GP call back !
The next job was to someone who had chest pain whilst out driving phones using there mobile from there car and didn't know what road they were on ! Well guess what, my cyrstal ball doesn't work on Saturdays ! The patient knee that they had driven through hemsworth on their way to Barnsley but finer know the name of the road they were on or the area, we found then it took 49 minutes 3 RRVs and one ambulance to locate them.
My next job was a RTC M1 South bound junction 40 I drove south then north couldn't find then police out looking too, turns out they were on the m62 junction 28 ! Not far away but seriously !!!
I then went to a nursing home for someone with a high temperature a male drunk in a pub, another nursing home for someone that had fallen out if bed, no injuries just a check over and pick up the staff have a no lifting policy !!!
A major problem with the ambulance service is that it's stretched to the limit of breaking point, if a person phones 999 for a ambulance no mater for what we have to triage and usually attend so the stubbed toe I had to go to took me 40 mins to sort out, all these inappropriate calls have to be taken care of, we have so many "regular patients" that we attend it's ridiculous. People phone 999 asking for a ambulance because they don't know how to look after themselfs.
Just another little way you can also help is, if you see amabulancr coming towards you or behind you indicate to the near side (left) slow down to a stop and we will get past you, try not to stop oppersite another car or central bollards leave us room to get past. On a road with double white lines we are not allowed to cross the double white lines even when we are responding to an emergency unless you are travelling at less than 20 mph and it's safe for us to do so. Please look out for us please pull in and stop

We called 111 last for my 74 year old mother in law. Chest pains. The response was fantastic and the team were brilliant it wasn't A heart attack it p turned out to be unstable angina. My mil has many health issues so I wasn't taking a gamble. The chaps that arrived at my house get a 10 out of 10. The response time was very reasonable. There are other people on the road and ambulances don't have go go gadget equipment to move them through faster. And most of all there therefore some right ignorant assholes that do not check their mirrors and have their music too loud to eve notice the emergency services behind them! Having read some of the staff that comments I feel sorry for them having to respond to someone suffering a bout of the trots?.speaks volumes. Free service taken for granted and being misused! Be nice people one day you may need these chaps to save your life x

Privatisation of the ambulance service is around the corner and when it comes there will be a rude awakening. Possibly chargers for attending certain incident will be certain, poor quality trained staff so moan all you like about response times and having to wait an hour for a ambulance to come for your Aunty that has been so I'll with a cold and the trots for a week!
2 years ago a senior director at YAS put so many changes onto the service, not for the better, then left to work for north of England (private ambulance device) they have just been taken over my an American firm and given a massive amount of investment to chase contracts.
Privatisation is happening !

This is one that will be familiar to all ambulance staff.
I have just been for a 65 year old male with a pain in his leg, had it since Thursday, hasn't been to see a GP so on Sunday he decides to phone 999 for a ambulance. At his house is his wife who drives with a car on the drive and his two sons who also have a car each. We roll up do the checks find nothing abnormal but, worst case scenario, he could have a DVT. Se we take him to A and E not under emergency driving, normal road speeds it's not a life and death situation at this time, his wife and two sons offer to follow the ambulance In two cars. Well I have a better idea why didn't you just bob him down to A and E ??? The call was in redbrook we were at the northern general when the call came in and had to drive under emergency conditions to get there
Because when asked about his breathing he said he gets out of breath now and then, no sign of this as he chattered all the way to hospital

Good god Ben! Your tongue must bleed at having to bite it so hard. That's a disgusting story and I hope the family concerned hang their heads in shame! If there were charges for using the ambulance for rubbish like that I'm sure we would all back it. You all do a fantastic job that shouldn't be abused. Thank you.

Thank you Anon, we all do our best but sometimes it's lot good enough, red tape and cut budgets is making out job we love difficult. I agree with Si stage private ambulance is just around the corner, and that will break this country
So whilst people moan and criticise the NHS just think about this. I'm Southern Ireland a ambulance trip will cost you 100 euros a GP appointment 50 euros a bottle of piriton liquid for your child 25 euros.
In England for a ambulance to be dispatched it costs the tax pater around £300, and the job I described is a everyday occurrence the other favourite is "I called a ambulance because I will get seen quicker" nope you won't it will take just as long as it takes

Yes Ben, red tape has gone too far in most walks of life I'm afraid. It does make me wonder if the ambulance system needs a review though so that calls can be better filtered so that its used correctly. The guy you mentioned could then have been offered some kind of NHS taxi with a cost involved? I don't know? Might be a rubbish idea,but its got to change so that's it can't be abused. We really don't want the Irish system you have quoted.

I am not saying anything bad about the ambulance service, if you red correctly i said that in my last post. I apologise if i have offended anyone. I was in shock as i have never witnessed an event like that. You do, do a great job! Hats off to you all.